Design and application of a tripodal on–off type chemosensor for discriminative and selective detection of Fe2+ ions

Abstract

A simple and cost-effective tris 2(amino ethyl) amine based chemosensor is synthesized via a single-step procedure. Receptor TIS showed a highly selective response towards Fe²⁺ ions over other metal ions in a methanol : water system as well as in human blood serum. Moreover, TIS also showed a remarkably discriminative response between the two states (Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺) of iron. TIS showed significant fluorescence quenching upon the addition of Fe²⁺ ions. The mechanism of quenching is evaluated from the Stern–Volmer plot and time resolved photoluminescence studies. The chemosensor showed pH sensitivity, a low detection of limit (1.09 μM) and a good binding constant value (2.49 × 10⁴ M⁻¹) further supplementing its application for environmental detection.